


Shiver

by aurumdalseni (kyo_chan)



Series: Voltron Ficlets [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, drift compatible paladins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-17 23:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10604178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyo_chan/pseuds/aurumdalseni
Summary: It's not safe to sleep. Shiro will keep running from how much he needs to. But the other paladins take care of him in the best way they know how.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A microstory prompt from my [Voltron tumblr](http://paladinpuppypile.tumblr.com) \- Shiro can't stop shivering. Hope you enjoy!

Shiro isn’t going to tell anyone it’s from lack of sleep. He’s not about to mention that it’s his second full day awake – if he’s even remembering the count of Altean time correctly – because he doesn’t want the fuss. He doesn’t want them to usher him off to sleep with their unintentionally too-loud protests. He’s too shaken to try dozing, even with the lights on, and it’s driving him crazy. Shiro tells himself repeatedly it was just a stupid nightmare that started all this. A dream that wasn’t even real, a conjuring of his own mind, and he’s blowing it completely out of proportion. That doesn’t really help him. 

It’s easier to hide on the training deck because he always keeps moving. Pacing the edge of the floor while the others are sparring, hyper-focused on them so he doesn’t think about himself or how tired he is. When it’s his turn, he fights like a beast, refusing to let his arm activate, breathing a little too hard when it’s done. The first night he doesn’t turn off the lights, and he reads anything he can search up on his tablet until it’s time to show up to breakfast and do it all again.

The others can feel it, like cold heavy shadows in depths of their awareness. They see right through him. 

By now, they’ve learned to be careful. They don’t bombard him when they find him in the lounge, tucked up on one of the seats and trying to be as small as possible. His name is uttered in soft murmurs as they quietly make their way over to him. The shivering is out of his control now, his body doing everything in its power to fight Shiro’s resistance to his exhaustion. He’s cold and his eyes burn, and he still tries so very hard not to give in. 

Lance is the first to get close, wrapping one of his blankets around Shiro’s shoulders. It smells like the soap Allura lets him use, and Shiro inhales the familiar scent with a shaky breath. Lance settles down at the floor by his feet and carefully rests his head against Shiro’s thigh. Keith plops himself down next to Shiro on the couch, wincing as Shiro starts, whispering a soft apology for the sudden movement. Shiro’s shaky smile tells him he’s forgiven. He doesn’t have it in him to try and be strong now; he’s just too tired. 

“It’s okay, Shiro,” Hunk says, gently laying his big hands on Shiro’s shoulders. They’re warm too, a weight against his trembling frame that tries to offer him stillness. 

Pidge leans against him from the other side. “You can sleep now, Shiro,” she tells him. In that moment, he realizes he was hiding nothing, and a strangled noise gets caught in his throat. “We’re not going to let anything happen to you.”

With that promise, the paladins stay close to Shiro, ready to chase away any demons that might try to scare him away from sleeping. Sometimes it’s Keith’s voice or Hunk’s firm hand on him that stirs him away from the edge of a nightmare without fully waking him. They sleep for nearly an entire day, until Shiro’s no longer shaking.


End file.
